11 Things You Didn't Know About the Viper Room

Though the prime of the Sunset Strip as LA ’s music mecca ’s long belong , the Viper Room lives on not just as a historic back - in - the - day hangout spot for Strip icon like Slash and Mötley Crüe , but as one of the few still - relevant clubs ( along with The Roxy and The Whisky ) remaining on the Strip . Of naturally , the most well know facts about the Viper are that River Phoenix died there , and that Johnny Depp was one of the original owners . But there ’s a lot you do n’t get laid about the Viper Room – like these 11 fact :

1. Before it was the Viper, the building had a checkered past

In fact , it was once the Melody Room – a known gangster hangout , where Bugsy Seigel and Mickey Cohen would get together and watch live jazz – and was also once known as The Central . But the spot really locked its LA ethnical significant in the ' 70s , when it was Filthy McNasty ’s – a divey Strip trend - setter that was sport on an album covert for the band Sweet , and was a steady bent for Tom Waits and Evil Knieval .

2. Adam Duritz – the singer from Counting Crows – was once a bartender there

And , if faux dreads are n’t your affair , so was Christina Applegate .

3. The first band to ever perform there was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

It was August 14 , 1993 and the timing makes sense , since flop around that time venue Colorado - owner Johnny Depp appeared in the band ’s " Into The Great Wide undecided " video .

4. The Pussycat Dolls got their start there

They ’re intimately known as a washed - up pappa group now , but for a while in the late ' XC they were the well - known burlesque radical in LA , thanks to their Viper residency .

5. There is a hidden, secret whiskey bar downstairs

It ’s just past the cashier , is open almost every Nox , is generally free to enter , and has a net ton of artisan liquor , including Slow Hand white whiskey and Hochstadter ’s Slow & Low Rock & Rye .

6. The backstage area is abetted with a stripper pole

It ’s not just an urban myth : we ’ve take in it with our own optic .

7. It’s not the only Viper Room

In fact , they ’re embroiled in a hallmark suit with another club promise the Viper Room in Portland … and there ’s a bagnio called the Viper Room in Australia . There ’s also a full rip - off club in the Netherlands decorated to await like the Sunset Strip reading .

8. Queens of the Stone Age once got paid $20 and 20 Coronas to play there in 2005… after they were famous

It was under the secret name The Clocks , and they just wanted to run , man !

9. In the ’90s, the Viper was also the site of Hollywood’s most high-rolling poker game

It had a $ 10,000 steal - in , and musician included Leo and Tobey . Of naturally .

10. Internationally renowned artist Louis Carreon recently added art to both the inside and outside of the club

The interior art , which covers the hallway to get into the club , looks like a bulwark of graffitied quotes , peace signs , and Bible soup , with backwards - writing on the other side and RIP River Phoenix and Hunter S. Thompson homages up top ; the outside now features a giant , on the face of it stained - methamphetamine man smoking a cigarette .